Russia’s military cooperation with Iran to withstand geopolitical pressure: Senior official

“There are no changes, and cooperation with Iran will continue,” Ryabkov said, according to a report on Saturday from Russian state news agency RIA.

“We are independent states and do not succumb to the dictates of the United States and its satellites,” he added.

The US is pressing Iran to stop selling the armed drones, which Russia is using in the war in Ukraine, the Financial Times daily reported earlier this month, citing an Iranian official and another person familiar with the talks.

An Iranian news outlet affiliated with the country’s Supreme National Security Council has rejected the claim by the British newspaper Financial Times on the alleged use By Russia of Iranian drones in the Ukraine war.

Nour News said in a tweet that Tehran has officially announced its position on the lies by the media about the drones.

Both Iran and Russia have repeatedly denied claims that Tehran has provided Moscow with drones to be used in the Ukraine war.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in November dismissed media controversy over Iran’s alleged support for Russia in the Ukraine war, adding, however, that Tehran had provided Moscow with a limited number of drones months before the war in Ukraine.

He also assured that Iran will not be indifferent if it is proven that Russia has used Iranian drones in the conflict.

Recently, the Iranian diplomat said that Tehran’s defense cooperation with Moscow has never involved the use of Iranian drones or weapons in the Ukraine war as Russia itself is one of the world’s biggest arms producers and exporters.

“We have provided no parties [to the war] with drones for use in Ukraine,” he asserted.

Amirabdollahian further stated that last year he had himself asked Ukraine to submit its alleged anti-Iran evidence to Iranian military officials.

The Ukrainian side shunned a meeting with an Iranian military delegation in Warsaw, Poland, and it provided no acceptable documents in a later meeting in Oman, he added.

“It was agreed that the Ukrainian side will once again review its documents for examination in another meeting with the Iranian side. We repeatedly called for such a meeting, but the Ukrainian side did not attend a new round of talks,” he continued.

The Iranian foreign minister also expressed Iran’s objection to the arming of any party to the Ukraine war, saying the flow of American and Western weapons to the former Soviet country will stoke insecurity and instability there and cause further deaths and destruction.